Language, and the endless battle for national identity

 

What does it mean to be a Malaysian?

Does our national identity hinge on race? That would be a poor basis. Our multicultural makeup is well-known and celebrated, although it does tend to paper over stark inequalities slanted towards the majority.

Our national identity would be better premised on a common language. Our government and our famously erudite prime minister are pretty clear on the position of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.

Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned companies and universities that government agencies would return correspondence written in any language other than Malay.

“The directive is clear,” he said at a national language and reading carnival.

Clear as a fist, and about as practical: bludgeoning its way through red tape and bureaucracy, even if it passes through Google Translate on the way there. Because, in many cases, that is what the government is going to get.

Ultimately, the argument boils down to our national education system – a battle between national and vernacular schools – the other battleground of the war over our precious national identity.

That appears to be the premise of an ongoing case in the Court of Appeal in which Malay-Muslim interest groups are seeking to declare vernacular schools illegal under the Federal Constitution.

The wheel continues to turn ever so slowly, and we will never reach anywhere as a nation.

The reality is that vernacular schools continue to exist in defence of cultures and languages under attack. Neither will we get anywhere until we recognise that the battle for national identity is not a zero-sum game.

We already accept Bahasa Malaysia as our national language. That is not and will never be up for debate.

It is understandably galling when you visit certain places only to discover that the only language spoken is Mandarin. Not a lick of Bahasa or even English. It is even more galling when you realise that the “inability” to communicate in the national language is in fact intentional.

But then again, everything is a response to the world around us. Ultranationalists who champion the national language in a way that seeks to extinguish all others are bound to trigger defensiveness recursing on itself until we all die of bitter frustration.

Of course, they will not position it as such. Instead, they say national-type schools can take up the role of teaching our country’s other major languages provided it is done in a more limited way.

But then again, language is culture. Bahasa itu budaya. Minimising a language equally minimises culture.

The math is clear. The only way past this is to acknowledge that the national language does not need to be upheld at the expense of any of the others.

Our multicultural Malaysian identity can only truly survive if every language is championed equally in our education.

By all means, make Bahasa Malaysia the mandatory and central teaching language in our schools and give English prominence as a second language, but ensure also that Mandarin and Tamil is taught to their native speakers by qualified teachers.

Impractical and impossible? A solution offered in naivete and stupidity?

Hardly, but such a solution would require funding, energy, and political will, which we are unlikely to get because divisive politics is always more convenient, despite what the unity government would have you believe.

Current sentiments suggest that such change is wishful thinking, but who knows what the future holds? - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.